eddysnake wrote:we watched The Master last night. I think everything you said was spot on. My wife and I both enjoyed it. joaquin phoenix is downright terrifying at times. Theres a lot going on here, but nothing really happens, a lot of crazy.

Spoiler:

I took away from it that Dodd was envious in a sense that Freddie had "achieved" what he was teaching way before they ever met, but Freddie "arrived" there through chaotic ways. They were opposites (instinct vs intellect), but the same. Freddie realized this (and that Dodd was full of BS) in Phoenix when they were presenting book 2. He left on the motorcycle and went to live his life, because he knew he was OK. Dodd thought himself and his teaching would be a failure without Freddie being in the same state, but influenced by the cause. My wife saw it similarly, but Dodd thought of Freddie as his pet and project and knew if he couldn't change this man being in the simplest form a human can be, then he was a failure.

Good stuff. I've always looked at the movie through more of a Freddie point of view, since I guess he's technically the main character, so that Dodd angle never really occured to me all that much.

I don't think Freddie is as self-aware as you're making him out to be, but the main point about Dodd still stands regardless.